Aptify's Association Blog

Tackling 21st Century Changes: Interview With National Speakers Association CEO Stacy Tetschner

Bryan Kelly — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:00:00 GMT

This interview between Stacy Tetschner and Bryan Kelly originally appeared on May 17, 2013 on AssociationMavens.com.

In this interview, Bryan sits down with Stacy Tetschner, CEO of the National Speakers Association (@NSASpeaker), to discuss some of the struggles his membership and association have had over the past few years. Stacy then shares some of the bold moves the National Speakers Association is taking to provide better value to both members and non-members—which is steering their organization into new territory.

American Dental Association

Chelsea Haynes — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:34:00 GMT

The American Dental Association is a professional association and the leading advocate for oral health representing more than 157,000 dentist members nationwide. Founded in 1859, the ADA is the oldest and largest dental society in the world and has since grown to be the leading source of oral health-related information for dentists and their patients. The ADA is dedicated to its mission of commitment to the public’s oral health, ethics, science, and professional advancement; leading a unified profession through initiatives in advocacy, education, research, and the development of standards.

The American Dental Association is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, comprised of members from 53 state and 545 local dental societies. Since its founding, this not-for-profit organization has been an advocate for public health and promotes the science of dentistry by advancing the dental profession through state-of-the-art research to develop and test dental products and materials. The ADA Seal Program, which began in 1930, includes over 300 oral health products stamped with the ADA Seal of Acceptance, universally recognized by consumers as a symbol of safety and effectiveness.

The ADA makes it possible for the dental profession to thrive and provide access to care for all Americans. Members of the ADA are guided by core precepts that include both mission and values that truly depict what the organization is all about: dedicated individuals contributing their knowledge, expertise, and experience to support the dental profession and the people it serves based on core values such as working for the same goals, responsibility, pride, positive attitudes, and support for all.

The American Dental Association contrives different programs and ways for members and people of the community to get involved within the association. The philanthropic arm, the ADA Foundation, provides scholarships for dental students, advocates for children’s dental health, and supplies disaster relief to members in need. The Give Kids a Smile program puts on national events year-round to provide dental services to under-served children—benefiting approximately 450,000 children annually. Check the links above to find out how you can participate or get involved!

To find out more about the American Dental Association, please visit its website here or view its Twitter page @AmerDentalAssn. Or, visit the ADA’s new dental health website for consumers at mouthhealthy.org to find healthy habits to adopt, explore ADA Seal of Acceptance products, view dental symptoms, and much more!

Association Online Strategies Must Keep Up With Tech Changes: Interview with Kylee Coffman of DelCor

Aptify — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:47:47 GMT

This interview between Kylee Coffman and Bryan Kelly originally appeared on May 1, 2013 on AssociationMavens.com.

Kylee Coffman (@KyleeCoffman), Senior Consultant at DelCor, sat down with Bryan Kelly to discuss and uncover some of the recent online trends that associations should be aware of, plus specific areas of focus that DelCor is currently helping associations with related to online strategy. Kylee shares exactly what your association needs to understand related to websites in 2013.

The Future Of The AMS: A Conversation eBook

Chelsea Haynes — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:23:54 GMT

This is an important time in the association industry. By means of offering engaging content, connecting with mobile, and staying relevant on an individual level, association management systems must change and adapt to fill the requirements of their clients, just as associations are evolving to fit the needs of their member base.

The Future Of The AMS: A Conversation is a newly released eBook featuring key players from across the industry to address what the future of association management systems holds. Hosted by Aptify, we held an informal conversation with Don Dea, cofounder of Fusion Productions; Reggie Henry, Chief Information Officer at ASAE; Dave Laatz, Founding Partner of Information Systems Consulting Group; Amith Nagarajan, Chairman and CEO of Aptify, Joanne Rang, Owner of Information Technology Advisory Group; and Wes Trochlil, Founder and President of Effective Database Management.

This eBook is aimed at discussing the future of association management systems and the plan to adapt to the many impending demands of the general population. With the shifting nature of associations and an increasing demand for innovation and new technologies, our participants discuss the importance of keeping up with fundamental changes to keep members engaged. While many associations need to figure out their needs, implementing new business models and leveraging technologies will be crucial in order to keep up with changing times and ideas. Read on to discover what exactly our participants had to say and to inspire a conversation of your own:

The Future Of The AMS: A Conversation

Five Reasons Why Boards Are Killing Association Business Models: Interview with Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation

Aptify — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:46:20 GMT

An interview between Bryan Kelly and Jeff De Cagna originally appeared April 17, 2013 on AssociationMavens.com.

As our first return guest to Associations Mavens—Jeff De Cagna (@pinnovation) of Principled Innovation talks with me about his provocative article for Associations Now magazine titled Trapped in The Past: Five Challenges of Conventional Thinking. Additionally, we reference this bonus companion piece titled Five “Next Practices” for Board Business Model Stewardship. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion!

Other Downloads: MP3 Version

Two New Items on the Aptify Training Menu

Aptify — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:48:15 GMT

Aptify Training Serves Up Two New Products to Suit Everyone’s Taste

Whether your team needs a specific topic covered or you want to take advantage of the full suite of educational programs we offer, Aptify Training has a solution that will fit your needs.

Select Training provides you with the flexibility to choose the exact material you need. You’ll meet with an instructor prior to the three-day session to determine an agenda, which can be created from a selection of topics that span several traditional Aptify courses. Select Training stresses best practices and how to make the core of Aptify work best for you. Attendance is unlimited.

Training Subscription provides you with multiple levels of training on a year-long basis, enabling you to fulfill your training needs within one package and at a substantial cost savings.

This package includes:

70+ e-Learning modules, covering topics from Fundamentals & Applications, Administrator, and Developer
One Existing Client Fundamentals class per year
One, two-hour webinar per quarter, where you determine the subject matter
25% off any scheduled or elected on-site, instructor-led training, including Fundamentals & Applications, Administrator, Developer I or II, e-Business, or Select class. (On-site sessions must have a minimum of five attendees)

Contact a training rep today for more details and pricing information.

Use the Composite Engagement Score (CES) to See the Future of Your Association

Chelsea Haynes — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Come watch Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan (@amithnagarajan) as he showcases “The Association Crystal Ball: Measuring Member Engagement” at the California Society of Association Executives’ 2013 Annual Conference. His presentation will show how association administrators can quantify member engagement by utilizing the Composite Engagement Score (CES) to give a better depiction of what their future holds. This simple, easy-to-implement system will not only teach participants the benefits of accurately measuring member engagement, but also how to implement new policies and procedures to strengthen the association overall. Hosted by the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco, Amith will be presenting to CalSAE on Friday, April 19^th, 2013 at 10:30 AM PDT.

Keep Contributors Active by Measuring Donor Engagement

Jennifer Barrell — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:05:53 GMT

Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan (@amithnagarajan) is headed to San Diego for the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference. His presentation, “Measuring Donor Engagement: The Key to Continuing Contributors,” will show how measuring donor engagement can make all the difference to a fundraising campaign’s ultimate success. Hear what he has to say at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, April 9, in room 28C/D/E and pick up some vital takeaways that will have your next campaign flourishing.

Attending digitalNow? Check Out Aptify Live

Aptify — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:25:29 GMT

The Aptify team is enjoying all that digitalNow has to offer in Orlando this week and preparing two fascinating presentations for Friday.

At 10:00 AM please join Jesse Sala, Software Engineering Manager at the American Dental Association, and David Frick (@dgfrick), Vice President of Customer Care & Support at Aptify, for “How Being User-Friendly Makes You Profit-Friendly: Enhancing Your Web Customer’s User Experience through Online Marketplace Best Practices.” This is perfectly suited to anyone interested in improving their online marketplace and those interested in leveraging their online capabilities to increase profit (located in Fantasia A/B).

For those looking to maximize the impact of their member engagement in a way that can be quantified and directly aligned with their business goals, Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan (@amithnagarajan) is moderating a “Member Engagement Strategy” panel discussion with Tom Hood (@tomhood), CEO of Maryland Association of CPAs, and John Mancini (@jmancini77), President of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM). No critical business success factor should go unmeasured, and this panel of industry leaders will discuss their views and share their experiences in the area of member engagement (located in Fantasia E/F, also at 10:00 AM).

We’ll see you there!

Why Business People Need to Learn the Basics of Coding

Amith Nagarajan — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:07:05 GMT

We often hear frustration from business people about programmers not understanding their business requirements. Having lived at the intersection of business and technology my entire career, I can tell you that it is indeed valuable for developers to communicate both technically and in business terms. While those types of folks are valuable, they are also fairly uncommon. Training developers more about business is very important for this reason.

An equally important but often overlooked piece of the solution is training business people on the basics of coding. While business people expect developers to “know their business,” very few have taken any time to learn even the basics of what application developers do. This leads to a lack of understanding that can impair a relationship and reduce the likelihood of effective communication.

Developers don’t necessarily need to become experts in the business domains they serve. Similarly, business folks don’t need to become coders. Think of it this way—if you land in a foreign country and take no time to learn the language and culture, while you can get your cup of coffee at Starbucks and see some sights, you will miss out on a great deal. By taking one baby step toward learning a little about the other “culture,” you will communicate more fluidly, learn more, and have a better overall experience. This applies directly to your relationships with developers.

I urge all business people to take the time to learn a little about software development and tinker around. Running a business increasingly dependent on technology without knowing anything about how it works is like Jeff Gordon racing stock cars without knowing anything about how an engine runs.

Khan Academy
Code Academy
MIT’s free introductory computer science course

Better Association Conferences With The Conference Catalyst: Interview With Speaker and Author Thom Singer

Aptify — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:10:00 GMT

This interview between Bryan Kelly and Thom Singer originally appeared February 28, 2012 on AssociationMavens.com.

Many of us attend conferences with a goal to network with other professionals who can help us grow, stretch, and think beyond our day-to-day activities. However, what often occurs is that we settle into something comfortable and spend most of our time with the people we already know. This is where the Conference Catalyst comes to the rescue! Speaker and Author Thom Singer, talks with me in this interview about his unique Conference Catalyst program while highlighting how he'll use the program at ASAE's Great Ideas 2013 conference as a general session speaker.

Other Downloads: MP3 Version

Have You Tried Rapid Prototyping With Business Processes?

Amith Nagarajan — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:24:19 GMT

Being agile is something that people often talk about but rarely implement in a way that allows them to rapidly try out new things and determine success or failure quickly.

Often, when new business processes are being designed, they are put into effect for an entire association’s membership at once. Rather than attempting to change processes association-wide, it is possible to consider rapid prototyping with small sub-groups of an association’s membership.

Consider an example of agility and rapid prototyping from an unlikely source: United Airlines. United has been selectively testing a new boarding method at some of its gates in some cities. The new method divides passengers up into multiple lanes, by boarding zone. For the last few years, United has had two lanes, one for so-called “Priority” customers, and another for everyone else. This new method is theorized to increase the efficiency of boarding while retaining some degree of “special treatment” for the priority folks.

In addition to measuring aircraft turnaround times with the new procedure, United hands out specially marked business cards at the boarding gate to each passenger, asking them to fill out a short survey. The QR code on the card ties the passenger back to the experience so that data can be analyzed specifically. United didn’t roll this out globally to all airports and all gates, rather they are trying it out on a small scale and gathering empirical data from this effort to determine if it makes sense to do this across the board.

What can we learn from this in the association market? Are there ways we can rapidly prototype and test new ideas and processes, putting them out into the world and gaining live customer/member feedback rather than theorizing on the likely results in our boardrooms?

Cloud Computing ROI: Looking Beyond the Hard Numbers for the Benefits

Amith Nagarajan — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:51:51 GMT

Recent coverage of a cloud computing survey in Associations Now addresses the concerns association executives have in determining the benefits of using the cloud.

True ROI for cloud computing needs to take into account the intangible value created when an organization is able to apply focus to the areas it has the greatest strengths in. Rather than managing the infrastructure of various IT systems, organizations that are using cloud solutions have the incredible advantage of not having to think about the day-to-day care and feeding of the IT infrastructure. The skill set required and the time necessary to do this is typically not the primary competency of most groups, and it can easily detract the hardest-working team from accomplishing its greater goals. A lack of focus is the most common reason organizations fail to execute on their strategic goals. Removing areas that are distracting is a great way to increase focus and align your energy with a narrow set of strategic objectives.

Additionally, it is critical to factor in the value of uptime. Internally managed systems are generally not managed 24x7x365 by internal staff. Any failures that occur requiring resolution from staff will typically have a longer resolution timeframe since most groups don't have this level of in-house monitoring and live support. In comparison, high quality cloud offerings have around-the-clock monitoring and rapid resolution to problems that arise, providing higher uptime. The cost of being down is enormous in both hard dollars and in lost credibility with members, so this certainly needs to be factored into the ROI methodology.

Most ROI metrics utilize only hard savings, but the two examples above, while somewhat hard to quantify, are critical strategic drivers that must be considered when evaluating cloud versus on-premise solutions.

Free Template Gives You the Power to Score Member Engagement ASAP

Aptify — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:46:33 GMT

Composite Engagement Score (CES) provides any sized association a clear picture of its members’ level of engagement. Using information you already have and requiring no special software beyond Microsoft Excel, it’s easy to implement. And now, the Scoring Member Engagement Excel Spreadsheet template is available for download here. Watch a brief how-to video on how to use the spreadsheet, view a sample sheet, and start using the blank template today to improve member relationships and drive explosive growth for your organization.

The Role of Content Curation in Associations: Interview With Elizabeth Weaver Engel of Spark Consulting

Aptify — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:48:49 GMT

This interview between Bryan Kelly and Elizabeth originally appeared December 17, 2012 on AssociationMavens.com.

Members have too much information to process and this isn't a new problem! In this interview, I had a very interesting conversation with Elizabeth Weaver Engel regarding a whitepaper she recently co-authored with Jeff De Cagna titled Attention Doesn't Scale: The Role of Content Curation in Membership Associations. As the CEO of Spark Consulting, Elizabeth leverages her 15 years of association management experience to help associations tackle tough challenges such as connecting with members in an age of information overload.

Other Downloads: MP3 Version, Whitepaper